Monday, December 19, 2011

Go Forth and Twirl

The last time you saw it, it was just a hood.

To knit the rest has taken almost exactly a year and a heap of Cascade 220 Sport–a yarn I love to pieces. Happily, the fit is generous; so the recipient should (in spite of considerable growth) get a goodly amount of use from it.

I might have finished faster; but the cape was knit, ripped back to the hood, and re-knit four times. The file for this piece has eleven swatches, and forty pages of instructions–most of them crossed out. The problem with me as a designer is that I'm not very good at it.

Children's clothing is a tough nut for me to crack, mostly because I fear my taste is not in step with the modern child–not to mention the modern parent. I wouldn't put my son in a Fauntleroy suit or my daughter in petticoats. On the other hand, I look to nineteenth-century children's clothing and sigh for the neat tailoring and the elegant details. Most of the kids in these parts run about in loud, shapeless rags and usually look as though they were dressed in the dark by a drunken nanny. (In these parts, they probably were.)

Maybe shapeless rags is what twenty-first century childhood requires. If so, I know my work in this genre will have severely limited appeal. So be it.

Anyhow, here are the first photos of the finished hood and cape. With a grateful nod to reader Rams S., who suggest a variation of the name, I will call the piece Manteau Rose.

I hope you'll like it, Abigail. It should twirl very, very well indeed. Uncle Franklin road tested it.

Note: After a rather unfortunate string of unsuitably, um, "whimsical" technical editors, I've finally found one who promises to deliver quality work in a timely fashion–so I hope that this and several other patterns (including the Anna Shawl) will be available for online download sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed.

It's gorgeous, Franklin! Also, that photo of your niece makes me love her without knowing her. When I look at her, I feel I would rather see that photo than the shawl, and I am totally not denigrating that beautiful shawl in saying so.

The cape is quite sweet and if you happen to knit my nearly 3yo one I am sure she would wear it. Often. If I knit it for her, however, she will throw it in a corner and yell "no" as loudly as she can while stamping her foot. Check out my ravelry page and see all the unmodeled, unloved small knits on it. As soon as she turned 2 she became VERY opinionated about what she would and would not wear. We don't have any drunken nannies here but we might as well given what her clothing looks like on any given day.

I really hope that the recipient and her parents will not only enjoy this work of amazing beauty and thoughtfulness, but will wear and store it such that future generations will love it as well. This one is timeless.

You are a Dammnnnn Good Uncle....I was the same when my niece was young - she is 20 now and gorgeous looking -and in her Pink Period. I made her a Pink Princess Dress with ruffles, puff sleeves and golden stars, a matching veil and golden shoes ..she wore it for months till she looked a beautiful rag doll and since that moment she prefers dresses over trousers and I am still her favourite uncle.

Great work - you definitely deserve some sort of Uncle of the Year award for all that ripping and re-knitting! Really like the geometric gatherings-in - I want to call them gores but maybe gores are just the ones that flare out! Anyway. Good job, and I hope she loves it.

Abolutely beautiful work, Franklin, and I wholly agree that children (and adults, for that matter) should wear more clothes like this. I want one, despite the fact that I'd look like a wedding marquis that would fit a small country.

Well done, Uncle Franklin! I have a 6yo daughter who would fall in LOVE with this if she saw it. I am, therefore, keeping her away from the computer b/c I have NO time to knit it and there isn't actually a pattern yet. :P

Having read all the comments, you will of course realize that you will need to size this from 2yearold to Women's size 55 plus, as every girly girl will need one. I'll knit mine in pink and send you photos.

Well Phoebe (3 years old) LOVES it and has requested it in "dark blue! dark blue!" so I hope your technical editor works quickly! Thanks for this lovely design.

(She has some nice clothes, but the problem is that we indulge Phoebe's penchant for independent and creative self-dressing. With enough clashing layers, any set of items looks dowdy. The other problem is hand-me downs, which save a lot of money, but fill the drawers with the dreaded hot pinks and glitter.)

Oh it came out beautifully! Much to my mother's chagrin (and probably because she worked so hard to withhold it from me) I was a huge fan of pink as a child and I probably would have just exploded from glee, right there on the spot, if someone had made me something that amazing.

Franklin, it is absolutely gorgeous, and I LOVE things from that era! I suspect that your niece will love to wear it, twirl in it, and feeling like a princess for sure! I hope you are going to sell this pattern. I have a 6 yr. old DGD!! LOL

Oh, and by the way, my dd, now 21, loved dressing as a princess and a fairy as a child, even has a grown fairy costume that she wears some Halloweens. Our dgd's love to play dress up in fancy clothes, too. My dd was the child that would go to kid's choir in her fairy princess getup and get longing stares from the other little girls...so the girls do like to wear that stuff!!

And both my girls would wear such a cape 24/7 if I let them. I am making a 'tiny Tea Leaves' in aqua for my almost 4 year old and have a request in for a dark purple for the 7 year old. I've got some picky girls when it comes to handknits.

Serious question. I used to live in the Chicago-land area years and years ago, and now live in WI. I get to Chicago frequently, and would LOVE to visit yarn shops, but I have a heck of a time finding any. Do you have recommendations? Thanks so much! C-

Lucky Abigail, I hope she wears it a lot! So much clothing these days is so uninspired.....I used to smock dresses for my daughters -kept all those pretties, too, for the grandchldren who will never come...

So precious!! I am all for 19th Century clothes, I must say... no wonder why lots of people have asked me if me and the kids "come from another country"... No, I don't dress them up 19th centurish, just elegant when on an outing... I will love to knit this one for my girl!!!

I'm so proud of you for finishing! And it looks so beautiful! You came up with a lovely design. Good thing my daughter is grown or I would be making one as soon as the pattern is published! Thanks for sharing - good job!!

(shhhhhh - just re-visiting this and can i tell u a secret? i'm going to be a grandma ((omg that sounds soooo old)) and i'm hoping i can knit all sorts of clothes to my grandchild... if they want it that is.. it' soooooo exiting! ta ta)

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Any chance that the Manteau Rose cape that you made your niece has been written up as a pattern for purchase yet? I have been watching for it and would love to make it for next fall for my granddaughter the 3 year old princess in my life!!

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